For as long as Mike Brown has been the head coach of the New York Knicks, he's spoken about his desire to make scoring easier for Jalen Brunson. It isn't an indictment on the superstar point guard, or his ability to captain a championship-level basketball team, to want his seven-foot All-Star teammate to find him for some easy looks.
When asked at media day about adapting to Brown's system, Brunson's take was simple. He said that if the Knicks want to win, they'll make any adjustments their head coach deems necessary.
That made it impossible to ignore that, at the end of the regular season, Brunson's usage had gone up almost a full percentage point from last season. But through the Knicks' first seven games of the playoffs, they seem to have suddenly perfected their blend of offensive attacks. Not only is it helping them win, but it's making them look harder to stop as each quarter goes by.
The Knicks are executing Mike Brown's vision – and cashing in
Game 1 against the Philadelphia 76ers brought Brunson's postseason average up to 12 off-ball screens per 100 possessions. That's more than double his average of 5.4 in the regular season, according to the ALL NBA Podcast.
If he, and the Knicks as a whole, keep buying into Brown's vision, it's hard to imagine the Sixers being able to stop them over the course of a seven-game series.
Brunson's screen-setting was integral to OG Anunoby's success against the Atlanta Hawks. He set a majority of the screens on Anunoby's defender that cleared the way for the physical wing to cut to the rim, and for Towns to zip him the ball.
Even then, Brown isn't suggesting schematically that the Knicks are better when Brunson has the ball less often. It's actually close to the opposite.
Brunson is benefitting from his off-ball screening as a scorer, too
Brunson will always serve as the team's lead ball handler, especially in crunch time when his "Captain Clutch" moniker rises to extreme relevance. Brown was glad to establish that at media day, before the team had played a single possession of Summer League or preseason basketball.
But the guard isn't in the same situation as some other top Eastern Conference initiators, where the styles of play of their supporting cast necessitates full-on "takeovers" from guys like Cade Cunningham or Paolo Banchero.
By allowing teammates like Towns to read the defense, it allows him to put energy he previously needed to stave off lengthy defenders toward setting hard screens and creating easy looks for his team.
Some of those looks end up being for him. Brunson averaged 2.8 field goal attempts per game at the rim throughout the regular season, which has risen to 5.8 through the first seven games of their playoff run according to DJ Zullo on X. That, again, is more than double.
The Knicks are finding new ways to win, but not just for the sake of diversity. They're finding better ways to win. That's what Brown was hired to do. And if they can continue to take care of business against the 76ers, they'll already be back in the Conference Finals.
Who knows what'll happen from there?
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